Gambling arrests at cockfights, card games and clandestine casinos quadrupled in Honolulu over the past three years, according to statistics released by the Honolulu Police Department.

The number of arrests shot up from 58 in 2003 to 239 in 2005 and include misdemeanor arrests for gambling, promotion of gambling, possession of a cockfighting gaff and cruelty to animals.

Police attribute the numbers to an increase in the various types of gambling, because no new staff or emphasis have been placed on enforcing state gambling laws. Others add that the explosion of Internet gambling and televised poker matches has removed many of the negative stereotypes associated with gambling. "People see it on TV and assume that because it is on TV, it must be legitimate. If there are no new resources the police are putting into this, that suggests pretty strongly there is something going on in the population," said Rachel Bolberg, president of the National Council on Problem Gambling, based in Washington, D.C.

Hawai'i and Utah are the only states that prohibit all forms of gambling, including lotteries and casino games, although social gambling is permitted here.

"The most prevalent (form) ... of gambling in my estimation would be bookmaking, and I would also guess that there is a significant amount of Internet betting, but no one really knows the extent," said Lt. Walter Ozeki, supervisor of HPD's 10-man gambling detail. He said gambling laws "are difficult to enforce, not necessarily because (gambling is) ... hard to locate, but because these investigations, and I'm referring primarily to sports betting, require specific technical expertise in that area, and these type of investigations are manpower- and labor-intensive."

Hawai'i is one of six states that ban online gambling. The others are Louisiana, Illinois, Michigan, South Dakota and Oregon.

According to the American Gaming Association, there are more than 2,000 gambling Web sites offering sports betting, casino games, lotteries and bingo. Revenue from Internet gambling was an estimated $11.9 billion in 2005 and is projected to double by 2010, according to Christiansen Capital Advisors. About 23 million people gambled on the Internet in 2005, 8 million of them in the United States, according to the AGA.

"A lot of people don't realize Internet gambling is not a regulated activity, and a lot of people don't know that sports betting is illegal, too, because a lot of the attention on poker tournaments and sports betting has made them very, very popular on school campuses and with the general public," Bolberg said.

Ronald Becker, head of Chaminade University's criminal justice program, said local residents tend to embrace gambling and, unlike in Mainland states where residents can drive to riverboat casinos or Native American reservations, Hawai'i residents fly to Vegas.

"Only a small portion of people can afford to fly to the Mainland to gamble (legally). It is becoming more socially acceptable nationwide, and everyone wants to get in on it," he said. "The arrest statistics (rising) would be a reflection of increased popularity of gaming nationwide and is consistent with people in the Islands having an appetite for it."

The most common form of gambling in Hawai'i is sports betting, mainly during football season, police said.

Residents here can easily bet on college, professional and high school football, police said.

In this type of "6-5 gambling," if someone wagers on a game and loses, they pay the house $6, but if they win, the house pays $5. Most houses set the minimum bet on a game at $25, meaning $25 if you win, $30 if you lose.

Runners distribute parlay cards, or gridlike sheets listing each game with a point spread, to bettors. Bettors place their bets through the runner, who relays them to the house. Police said runners, who typically are the ones arrested, can only be charged with a misdemeanor. Bookmakers and casino operators can face felony conspiracy and racketeering charges, police said.

Federal authorities working with Honolulu police have cracked several major 6-5 gambling rings in recent years.

Francis "Moody" Kahoohalahala, 55, the suspected ringleader of a sports bookmaking operation, pleaded guilty in July 2000 to conspiring to conduct an illegal gambling business and failure to pay the wagering occupational tax. Kahoohalahala, a state repairs and maintenance assistant, was indicted with six others in connection with illegal betting from a Maui Department of Accounting and General Services office. They were accused of accepting wagers on college and professional football games during the 1994-95 and 1995-96 seasons. Records seized indicate 332 wagers totaled more than $65,000 during one two-day period.

Honolulu comedian Mel Cabang pleaded guilty and was sentenced in September 1998 to 51 months in federal prison in Nevada for running a sports betting operation from his Hawai'i Kai home. Federal prosecutors said Cabang ran one of the largest betting operations in the state from 1991 to 1995 and had 23 runners to collect wagers in a bookmaking operation with daily profits of $2,000 during college football and basketball seasons.

Illegal casinos also present problems for police. At any given time, at least two or three "major casino operations" are running on O'ahu, along with "quite a few" smaller operations, HPD's Ozeki said.

Most recently, on Feb. 21, officers served a search warrant at a business on Ke'eaumoku Street, arresting four people and seizing gambling paraphernalia and surveillance equipment.

But police say clandestine casinos are easy to set up and move frequently. "The very next day, an officer returned to discover that the casino was fully operational and all the equipment had been replaced," Ozeki said. "Three others got arrested."

Reach Peter Boylan at pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.